


Not That Kind of Kinship

by ArgentLives



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Family Dynamics, Gen, Misunderstandings, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7168697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentLives/pseuds/ArgentLives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Barry and Iris put to rest a very tired old argument, Joe is amused, and Wally is going to make Iris regret ever saying she's always wanted a little brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not That Kind of Kinship

**Author's Note:**

> fact: younger brothers by definition live to annoy their older sisters and get in their business trust me I know from experience; anyway I can’t wait for Wally to embrace his True Self

When Barry hears the footsteps approaching his lab, he’s already well into that hyper-focused head-space with his work, completely absorbed in the report he’s writing up on the last case he worked on. “Hey, just give me a minute, Joe, I’m almost done,” he says, waving a hand absently towards the direction of the door, not bothering to look up from his report as he scratches out a line he needs to correct. There’s really not many other people who come to visit him up here around this time unless they really need something, and he knows that Joe is waiting for him to go grab lunch like they planned, so he’s really not expecting the awkward cough and a voice that is most definitely not Joe’s that greets him instead.

“Uh, actually it’s—it’s me. Wally.”

“Oh,” Barry blinks, suddenly alert, head snapping up not quite at flash speed, but close. “Oh, hi, yeah, sorry Wally, um—come in? I mean the door is already open and everything, obviously, but—yeah, uh, what’s up?”

“I can come back later,” Wally swallows, eyes darting nervously left and right, taking in the organized chaos of Barry’s lab. “You know, if you’re really busy.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I can finish later, really,” Barry waves away his concerns. He stands up to greet him because Wally is standing and he feels like he should, and then immediately sits down again because okay, no, that was stupid and he probably looked—looks—like an idiot. Instead, he tries in vain to tame the embarrassed blush he can feel flooding his cheeks, and clears his throat awkwardly, gesturing to the stool near his desk. “Um—you can sit? If you want. I mean, unless you wanted to be quick, I don’t—”

Wally, bless his soul, saves him from rambling on and making an even bigger fool out of himself by offering up a hesitant smile and crossing the room with careful footsteps, quickly taking a seat on the stool. 

“So,” Wally says, and clears his throat. Barry waits, trying to hide the way his foot is bouncing impatiently underneath his desk, and tries to be patient. It’s just—hard, especially since he got his speed; moments like this, especially when he’s nervous, seem like hours, seconds dragged on like the rest of the world is moving in slow motion and he’s waiting for it to catch up.

“So,” he finally prompts, doing his best to look friendly and open, when the silence that drags on becomes too much. Wally watches him with conflicting emotions flitting across his face, clearly struggling to find what he wants to say, and he wishes he knew what he was thinking. He tells himself he’s being stupid—Wally’s just a kid, and not a bad one, he shouldn’t be so self-conscious around him. It’s just…he’s Joe’s son, Iris’s brother, and he doesn’t want to say the wrong thing again, doesn’t want him to hate him anymore then he already seems to (has a right to, that vicious little voice in his head reminds him), because neither of them are going anywhere anytime soon. Hopefully.

Wally takes in a deep breath, and Barry has the feeling that he’s maybe not so alone in feeling so tense. “I just—I know we got off on the wrong foot,” Wally says in a strained voice, “and I was talking some things over with…my dad…and I realized I might’ve been a little hard on you? I don’t know, I just—I feel like I kind of owe you an apology. I didn’t mean to come off hostile, or anything.”

“Hey, uh—” Barry fumbles with the beaker he’d been fiddling with, trying to distract himself, as he tries to set it aside, nearly spilling its contents all over his desk. “Hey—no—Wally—look. I’m the one who owes you an apology, seriously, I was acting like a jerk and I wasn’t exactly being welcoming. I’m really sorry about that—I’ve had a lot on my mind recently and I was pretty caught up in that and I know  came off as stand-offish, but I—sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I know you’re still getting used to a lot of change and I should’ve been more aware of that, really—I just get caught up in my own head sometimes.”

Wally nods bites his lip, a crease appearing between his eyebrows as he stares down at his shoes. “Maybe,” he says, speaking slowly, like that’ll give him all the answers, “we could just both accept the fact that we aren’t perfect and accept each other’s apologies and move on? Start over?”

“Yeah,” Barry smiles, and this time it comes easy, a heavy weight lifting off his shoulders. Unlike so many of the things that he can’t, that he hasn’t, maybe he can at least still fix this. “Yeah, okay. Definitely. I’d like that.”

“Good.” Wally’s smile becomes a little less shaky and a little more genuine, his shoulders sagging in relief. Watching his uncertainty finally fall away, Barry feels familiar flash of guilt at the realization that Wally must have really been worried he might just blow him off again. He wants to kick himself for how thoughtless he must have been around him before to warrant such a reaction.

“Seriously though,” Wally says before he can dwell on it further, “I didn’t mean to make you think I didn’t like you—well, okay, I kind of did, but I don’t actually? I think—I was just jealous.”

“Jealous?” The corners of Barry’s lips tug down in a frown. He’d asked Joe and Iris to tell Wally the truth, to stop making him seem like something he wasn’t, and he doesn’t like to think that they’re still adding fuel to that fire.

“Yeah, you know, suddenly I find out I’ve got this family I never knew about, and with my mom dying I just—now they’re all I have left, you know? So I realized I want to be a part of that, and I’ve been trying but it’s like—Joe’s already got a son that he loves. And you pretty much grew up under his roof, how am I supposed to live up to that—”

Barry’s frown deepens and he opens his mouth to argue, but Wally doesn’t give him the chance, swallowing back his pride and rushing to get the words out because he needs to get them off his chest and saying it is already hard enough. If he lets himself be interrupted now, he’ll never be able to get it all out. He holds up a hand in warning. “Wait, let me finish. So, that’s—that’s what it’s like with him, and then Iris, you know, she’s actually a really cool sister, and I never even knew I wanted one of those. But now that I know her it’s just—I mean after all you two have probably been through I’m pretty sure I don’t have a shot at being the favorite brother—”

“Woah,” Barry’s eyes go wide, and Wally glowers at being cut off so abruptly. Still, he allows it, because he was getting to the end of his little confession, anyway, and the look on Barry’s face is—well, horrified is putting it lightly. And Wally’s a little more than intrigued. “Woaaah, wait, slow down, okay—Iris is _not_ my sister. Absolutely not. Like, we share no DNA. It’s not—we’re not—that’s not a thing that’s ever…been a thing.”

Wally blinks at him, surprised by the vehemence in his tone, the intensity in his insistence. Somehow, he gets the impression that this is something Barry’s done before. “But don’t you consider Joe, like, a second dad or something?” he asks, watching him carefully, mostly just to get a reaction. He has an inkling as to why the whole thing might have warranted this response, but he’s curious, and eager to dig a little deeper.

Plus—okay, he was being honest when he said he didn’t hate the guy, he does want to be on good terms with him, it’s just—he’s not going to kid himself. It’s still a little satisfying to see him squirm.

“Well, yeah, but Iris—” Barry huffs, his expression going simultaneously exasperated and soft, “It’s different. I’ve literally never thought of Iris as a sister. No brotherly feelings there, seriously. She’s just—my best friend.”

“Just your best friend?” Wally prompts, pretty sure he knows the answer to that already. As expected, Barry flushes and averts his eyes, conveniently ignoring the teasing lilt to Wally’s voice.

“Yeah. Yep. So,” he shrugs lamely, gesturing to the door, where Joe is now standing, watching the two of them with an eyebrow cocked in amusement, a hand over his mouth to hide his smile. Barry glares at him, feeling the heat rush to his face, before turning his attention back to Wally. “That’s that. Look, why don’t you, uh, come to lunch? Joe and I have our break now, so…”

“Sure,” Wally says, still staring at Barry like he’s got him under a magnifying glass, a million questions bouncing around in his head and something that can only be described as mischief in his eyes. _Oh,_ he thinks _,_   _this is going to be fun._ “I’d like that.” 

 

* * *

 

“So, I talked to Barry earlier today,” Wally says without preamble, and Iris beams at him from across the table. It’s just the two of them, tonight, and they’re currently waiting for the pizza to arrive, because despite Iris’s insistence on making a mean dish of hers that apparently involved mac and cheese, she’d somehow managed to burn that.

“That’s great! How’d it go?” Iris’s smile is all teeth, and she looks so thrilled for a moment he considers not going ahead with his plan, but—nah, it’s too good an opportunity to pass up.

“Pretty good. He’s not so bad, I guess,” Wally shrugs. “I mean, we actually talked about things. Tried to start over. He apologized, I apologized, and then admitted I was jealous of him, you know, because he’s already had a place her with you guys, in this family, for so long and now I’m just—new to it all.”

She reaches across the table to lay a hand over his, eyes soft and understanding, and not for the first time he realizes how lucky he is to have her, and this new home, all things considered. “Wally, that doesn’t—” she starts to say, but like with Barry earlier, he holds up a hand to stop her.

“I know I’m being paranoid, and you and your dad have been great,” he says, and Iris frowns at the ‘your,’ clearly bursting to remind him it’s his dad too. That’s something he’s still getting used to, though—it’s hard to think of Joe as ‘dad’ when he’s gone his entirely life so far not knowing he existed. He’s working on it. “So,” he clears his throat, and fights to keep the smirk off his face as he prepares his next words with calculated consideration. “It’s kind of like, though I know it’s stupid I still have this worry that, you know, how am I supposed to catch up to that level, when you guys have already had this person in your life taking up the spot that I should’ve been, the whole loving son and brother role.”

Iris blinks at him, and _oh man_ , he wishes he could take a picture right now, because the look on her face is priceless. “Barry is _not_ my brother,” she blurts, sounding legitimately offended that he’d even suggest it, pulling her hand back to her side. She scrunches her nose up and glares down at the table, looking angry at herself for her sudden outburst, but apparently just as insistent as Barry about the whole thing. “Really, he’s not, we’re not—” she bites her lip, her eyes widening like she’s admitting some big secret. _To who?_ Wally wonders, because somehow he gets the impression that this whole spiel isn’t as familiar to her as it had been to Barry. “I really don’t think of Barry like that.”

 _Gotcha_ , Wally thinks, feeling smug, and wonders if maybe he has a natural talent for this meddling little brother thing, after all. Oh, he is going to have a fucking ball with this. “Oh, really? How do you think of him then?”

“We’re just best friends,” she says way too quickly, and Wally bites back a laugh. Wow, his sister can’t lie for shit. He carefully files that information away for later. “We have been since way before he came to live with us. And like—we’re close, I know Barry better than anyone and same goes the other way around but—not sibling close.”

“Funny,” he says, tilting his head at her. “Barry said the same thing. You both seem to have very strong feelings about it. Not brother-sisterly feelings though! Believe me, I got the picture.”

Iris just stares for a moment as he grins at her, a deceptively innocent expression on his face. She narrows her eyes at him. “Wally…”

“Pizza’s here!” he says cheerily, the ringing of the doorbell echoing throughout the kitchen. He hops up from his seat and walks away with a bounce in his step, grinning all the wider as he feels Iris’s heavy glare at his back the whole way to the front door.

If he’s really going to be Iris’s younger brother, he’s going to have to start taking his role seriously. Well, that’s easy enough. His mom always used to tell him he had a special knack for not minding his own business.


End file.
